If confirmed by the full Senate, Mannion, a Democrat who is a former U.S. attorney in Scranton, is expected to sit in that city. Brann, a Republican and 1990 graduate of the Dickinson School of Law, is expected to sit in Williamsport, which currently does not have a judge.

They will fill the vacancies created when Judges James Munley and A. Richard Caputo took senior status in January and March 2009, respectively, and Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie, was elevated to the U.S. Third Court of Appeals in April 2010. All three sat in Scranton.

Scranton labor attorney Robert D. Mariani was sworn in in May to fill one of the vacancies.

The Middle District is composed of 33 of the state’s 67 counties with courtrooms in Harrisburg, Williamsport, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.

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